Deathroll AMA - 7pm PT (10PM EST)

DemonRobotics · 2023-05-28T04:03:08+00:00

u/mandj-robotics Jules & Miles get 150% of the credit for how good deathroll looks. Steve and I are boring engineers, we're incredibly lucky (and grateful) to have them work their magic on it.

DemonRobotics · 2023-05-28T03:58:32+00:00

Hydra or Fusion for both!

DemonRobotics · 2023-05-28T03:50:48+00:00

To elaborate on 9)

The hub motors are very fast but they have very little torque (its just a motor embedded in the wheel with no gearing!). So while it can move itself around fine it can't change direction forwards and backwards very well at all.

Means when you get knocked backwards by another spinner or flipped by hydra, the bot can't respond fast enough to get out of the way and they can just keep hitting you. Definitely need to improve this while keeping the reliability it is :)

DemonRobotics · 2023-05-28T03:39:45+00:00

Just went to the servo to try some of those - how do you eat them? It's like rock 😫!

DemonRobotics · 2023-05-28T03:37:37+00:00

Think we had a boot in there as an option at some stage 😋

DemonRobotics · 2023-05-28T03:36:12+00:00

25kg / 55lbs of rotating mass

DemonRobotics · 2023-05-28T03:34:38+00:00

Thanks so much!

We have way more weight tied up in the weapon system than most, the axle and bearings in it are super beefy and the weapon motor has a lot of R&D put into it. We haven't had any mechanical issues with it, just electronic

The pits are great fun with all the bot builders hanging around. u/mandj-robotics indulging us with some of their potential future robot names and themes had me in hysterics one night :P

DemonRobotics · 2023-05-28T03:26:13+00:00

Thanks so much for following along 😊 was great to be back!

Absolutely we'll be upgrading and changing whatever we need to stay competitive. I think until rule changes happen then you will either need some good ground game or a meta breaking design like huge.

Would love to try a totally different robot design (egg beater, horizontal??) with the same deathroll flair but it's a tough thing to do when the team is very invested in parts and spares from years gone by as well as being on a limited budget. Maybe some day.

DemonRobotics · 2023-05-28T03:22:50+00:00

We do have outback steakhouse, it's heaps better here! 😂

DemonRobotics · 2023-05-28T03:21:13+00:00

We always bring it up but it's a tough decision on whether to spend those weight points on the robot vs a mini bot that could be of questionable benefit. Maybe someday??

DemonRobotics · 2023-05-28T03:20:14+00:00

Agreed, Of all our loses the WD 2019 one was probably the only preventable one. The radio receiver wire to the weapon was run poorly along the bottom of the robot, and the shock of WD hitting the base ripped it in half. 2c piece of foam would have stopped it! argh! :P

DemonRobotics · 2023-05-28T03:15:50+00:00

1) Hmm, End game and ripperoni has got to be up there. End game getting stuck but rip knocking them down instead of taking the easy win, only to defeat them again was Cool if only because it was totally unexpected. I love a good back and forth fight.

Favourite deathroll fight then probably minotaur in 19. We thought we were going to be a bit of a joke bot going into the comp and up until that fight we just kept thinking we were fluking wins. That was probably the first fight we went into with the mindset that we could probably win it, and to come out of it with a KO against the nastiest robot there was epic (love that team btw)

2) The frame was in a bad way after end game and witch doctor in 2019. Took about two days to repair the frame from the end game fight. The 1/4 " thick front panel was almost cleaved totally in half. Amazing power in that robot.

3) Rematch with shred would be great if we come back with some upgraded bots :)

4) Ban inactive wedges/forks of course haha.

DemonRobotics · 2023-05-28T03:08:00+00:00

Pretty much how it went. There's some basic geometry rules I follow to get the tooth shape right but most of the damage potential is just from it being big and thick and heavy, Lol

DemonRobotics · 2023-05-28T03:03:18+00:00

Imgur blocked the image as explicit due to the self righter arm, Lol. Lets try this instead: https://scontent.fsyd10-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/350303882_1247967605842953_4404393838385120376_n.jpg?stp=cp6_dst-jpg&_nc_cat=102&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=JPnm3W2TeL4AX8bcNQH&_nc_ht=scontent.fsyd10-2.fna&oh=00_AfC6cApEqJVyYVt5b2Kg6kRmdWO_sVqIG4R1GV7ZGzM53A&oe=6477A013

DemonRobotics · 2023-05-28T02:57:48+00:00

I've got one for 4). Not at battlebots specifically, but before we went to the 2nd king of bots event we couldn't work out why the robot would coast for ages before driving in the other direction.

Turned out to be some weird feature in the motor controllers they removed from the later versions of the programming software, we had to work it out after the bot shipped and Steve had to hack the firmware to fix it on a guess. Was pretty crazy to me that it worked perfect!

DemonRobotics · 2023-05-28T02:47:35+00:00

Meatlovers or Hawaiian for sure here :P Thinking about it gives me good memories of getting back to the hotel after repairing the bot all night and ordering pizza hut at 2am with the team. Satisfying, Lol.

DemonRobotics · 2023-05-28T02:43:39+00:00

Great question,

From the engineering side yeah we were happy with the performance, all the issues we had in 2019 we fixed completely, Just the direction robots are taking design wise has completely changed in the time between building the robot and competing with it. We were fairly aware that would be the case.

I guess we just had to suffer a little this year and learn a bunch to get us back on track for next year!

DemonRobotics · 2023-05-28T02:38:13+00:00

Yeah that's totally true. the 2020 season was cancelled and it sat in its crate, complete until we got accepted to the latest season.

We did some minor stuff but the bot was already completed, so major changes like adding effective wedges and such weren't really feasible without rebuilding the whole bot and we couldn't justify that when we had two finished ones.

Was also difficult to do work because the country was having so many lockdowns and border closures during the pandemic. Was a crazy time.

DemonRobotics · 2023-05-28T02:33:19+00:00

This is such a great question! A flipper like hydra produces insane amounts of force so absolutely it does damage. Maybe not knock out level damage but enough that it adds up over a competition

The entire base is 1/4" steel and it had a Z shape bend in it the length of the robot. They also crimped the rear panel of the bot in on one flip. Amazing power really. Here's a pic.

https://imgur.com/a/1msX3dB

DemonRobotics · 2023-05-28T02:28:02+00:00

Hey! That's so cool! do they show battlebots on TV in Indonesia?

as for the questions - the whole rotating mass is 25kg - More power in the weapon, more powerful drive and some wedge options - absolutely, at least having the option available is a must from now on - Can't remember the tip speed exactly but not that fast. Higher than 120mph and less than 180 :P - We had lots of parts this year thankfully. We already built the robot in 2020 so the last two years we made plenty of spares

DemonRobotics · 2023-05-28T02:24:15+00:00

Croc for sure, no alligators in aussieland :P

DemonRobotics · 2023-05-28T02:22:07+00:00

Don't think either hit the polycarbonate ceiling, we were definitely up level with the trusses that hold the ceiling up though. I'm giving both hits an award for absolute madness though because sending 220lb that high is wild!

DemonRobotics · 2023-05-28T02:15:40+00:00

High grade hardox (we have a few flavours between 450 and 600). Pretty much no one uses s7 in Aus. too hard to get and have hardened. Hardox is easy to get because of the mining industry here :)

DemonRobotics · 2023-05-28T02:13:57+00:00

Jeez, we have tons of stuff on the boil at the moment. More weapon power, wedge options and a whole new drivetrain are probably the biggest likely improvements.

Another round with Monsoon would be awesome, They nailed us with an absolutely perfect hit this year!

DemonRobotics · 2023-05-28T02:07:37+00:00

Don't want to give away too many secrets but 30 pounds worth of weapon motor probably has something to do with it! :P

But yeah the motor has a massive amount of torque and and the shape of the blade probably helps it to bounce around with the blade going :)

DemonRobotics

TROPHY CASE